The invention relates to a method for manufacturing coated profile members, wherein a foil is cut to a predetermined width and wrapped around the profile member so as to form a butt seam extending in a longitudinal direction of the profile member, as well as an apparatus for carrying out this method.
Methods of this type are employed especially for furniture profiles but also for manufacturing door frames, door leaves, window profiles and the like and have the purpose to coat a profile member, e.g. a chipboard or an MDF board, with a decorative foil, e.g., a plastic foil. In this process, the profile member shall be wrapped in at least one foil web such that neither an overlap nor a gap is produced at the positions where the edges of the foil webs abut against one another. This implies that the foil web is precisely cut to a suitable width.
Up to now, this is done by first bonding the foil onto the surface of the profile member and then milling away an edge strip of suitable width from the foil that adheres to the surface of the profile member adjacent to a butt seam which extends, for example, in a certain distance from an edge of the profile member. This method has the drawback that the dust that is produced in the milling process is likely to cause contaminations and other problems. In particular, dust particles may stick to the adhesive layer on the foil that has not yet been bonded onto the profile member, so that ugly pimples are produced when the foil is bonded. Moreover, the milling tool may be soiled by rapidly curing adhesive.